A Farewell Interview with Black Lab Games

Black Lab Games has been based at Stirling Business Centre for three years and is now about to enter a new chapter in their business journey.

Achieving many successes, such as winning national awards and an ever expanding workforce, the Perth game developer continues working on many exciting projects and are now ready to move into their own commercial space.

Stirling Business Centre is incredibly proud of Black Lab Games’ achievements and we can’t wait to see what unfolds for them.

While they pack their boxes and prepare for their relocation to Leederville, our marketing intern, Beth Bavich, sat down with Founder and Managing Director, Paul Turbett to discuss his business journey and time at the centre.

What does Black Lab Games do?

We make video games for PCs and other consoles and market our games worldwide through a publisher. We have one office here in Perth, where we do all the developing work, then we work with a publisher based in the UK who handles all the sales and marketing for us; they have distribution centres located in the UK and the resources to partner with Sony and Microsoft.

Tell me about your greatest achievement in your business?

In 2017 we released a game based on the sci fi series, Battlestar Galactica, and our company won the Australian Game Development Award for that game. The Australian Game Developer Awards are presented annually for excellence and innovation for Australian-made games. Black Lab Games winning the Award was the first year that a West Australian developer has ever won the national competition. We are very proud of that achievement and good recognition of our hard work.

How long have you been at Stirling Business Centre for?

We moved here in May 2016. The company started in 2008 as a part time business based from home. We were able to receive a grant, allowing us to expand and ultimately led us to receive further funding to develop Battlestar Galactica. That was the start of Black Lab Games as a “real” business.

What have you enjoyed most about working in the centre?

We have enjoyed the ability to bring our team together and have the space to collaborate. We previously worked remotely and while that was manageable, our style of work benefits with us being in the same room together. Our face to face meetings in the office are always more productive and enjoyable, which is something that doesn’t translate through screens. Stirling Business Centre has provided an enjoyable space to grow and expand, and we are now ready for this new chapter and the next era of Black Lab Games. I’m very grateful for the support from Stirling Business Centre and I can safely say we wouldn’t be in the situation now without the support we’ve received from SBC.

Do you have any advice for small business owners?

One lesson I have learned throughout my experience of growing a company is: Don’t give up. From starting the business in 2008, it took me six years until I was able to commit to it full time. Fast forward another five years to now with seven employees on the payroll. It proves that sometimes it does take a while to get where you want to be and it takes patience with yourself and your company. Another lesson I’ve learned is that as a manager, you always have to be considering long term and being determined to reach those long term goals is the best attitude to have.

Do you have any exciting new projects coming up?

We are working on new projects, but unfortunately it’s not something we can reveal too much about because it’s all very much a work in progress. The nature of video games now is focusing on offering add-ons and live support programs to existing games. Our future projects and releases are something of this nature, which is exciting for our customers, but unfortunately we can’t share too much about them as yet